Who Guards the City's Gate

Who Guards the City’s Gate

Our nation is under siege, a nation divided. Cities have leaning walls, like a tottering fence. Our past prosperity came easily, but now it is weakened. Our personal health and well-being is threatened as well. There is violence, strife, destruction, and oppression around every corner. Our covenant to freedom and liberty has been broken. The enemy pierces the peace with fags of an adder. Our cities are uprooted as plowed new ground, and the night pours out violence, but no one listens. Violent and evil men seek to destroy the inheritance of patriot heros and profane our constitution.

The heart of evil is treacherous chasm. Vileness is exalted and baseness prized. Evil men who have flattering lips and a double heart breathe out fire to slander, bribe and kill the innocent. They are violent men flaunting themselves like a cedar in its native soil. Their deceitful tongues, smoother than butter, devise destruction. They are estranged from the womb and spit venom like a viper and are like the miscarriage of a woman who never sees the sun. With sharpened tongues like a serpent with poison on their lips, and they delight in lies, and their venomous words are arrows that ambush the blameless. Their lies take root when the plow breaks open the ground, but during harvest, they spread gall over our food. Pride is their necklace, and violence is their garment. Their hearts have shriveled like wineskins, and their sharpened arrows fly with burning coals of the broom tree. They speak with puzzling words, and their footprints are difficult to trace. Their mouth is an open grave sustained with a silken tongue. These violent men sit at the city’s gate with evil in their hearts, and their well-conceived plans are acts of injustice to society.

There is no peace in hell. These evil and violent men set their nets and snares. They are like hungry jackals tearing flesh in the night, and return the next evening with howls and snarls like dogs. They belch out insults, sarcasm, ridicule, slander and lies. Their wealth, power and idols cannot speak, see, hear, smell, feel or walk. All carved idols are worthless and speak no wisdom. When will the fool become wise? Where is moral and spiritual integrity?

The innocent lie in anguish by the evil deeds of violent men, and the night is the only light around them. Their eyes are clouded and grow dim with sorrow and grief. There is weeping in the night, no joy comes in the morning. Like a vessel broken, hope is seared with the burning heat of summer. Will the lost be laid in nameless graves? Will the great mountains ever be released from turmoil’s shadow? Will the tears of the innocent return to the urn? Will there be justice for the fatherless and oppressed? Will the innocent, afflicted and abused be forgotten?


Even wise men, the fool and stupid die. Without vigilance rust devours places the eye cannot see. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. Some trust in chariots and horses, but power is a false hope for victory. No praise comes from the dust, and wheat does not grow in a famine. Should we become prey to be torn by the teeth of the wolf? Should we flee like a bird to take refuge in the mountains? When waters of great stress overflows will there be deliverance and peace? We must take refuge in the arms of our creator, in the shadow of the eagle. May waters of wisdom come abundant in wine skins. Let the water of life fall in the dry desert, and let truth spring from the earth and righteousness from heaven.

Are we deaf and mute? How long will we keep silent? Let us escape the snare of the hunter. Hide not our eyes from the enemy in times of trouble. Let our bows be strung and bent. Neither bridle nor rein can hold us back. We will not be afraid of the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor evil that stalks in darkness. Strap the sword of courage on to your thigh and sharpen your arrows. Beat them to dust before the wind like axe to trees, and may victory come when morning dawns. May the wicked melt away like a snail to salt. As God promised, He will wash His feet with the blood of the wicked.

There is hope in God’s justice. Someday, God will have victory over evil like chaff the wind blows away. Peace will prevail like a tree planted by a stream of water comes to maturity. Evil deeds will be shattered like broken earthware. The lying lips with pride and contempt will become mute. Medicate your heart with righteousness. The mouth of the righteous proclaims wisdom. Seek authority through wisdom.

Come, behold the works of the Lord. Be still and know that He is God. The heavens declare His righteousness. God chooses our inheritance, and He is to be feared and worshiped with great reverence. God reigns over nations. He strengthens the bars of city gates. With the East wind, He shatters ships. The Lord provides snow like a blanket of wool and scatters the frost like ashes. His word melts the ice on mountaintops, and He causes the wind to blow and waters to flow. He will send flowing streams to the mountains, springs to the valleys and nests to the trees. We will be like the seeds of a flower of the field, as the wind passes over, we are carried away, clouds our chariot, the wind our wings. Time is like an evening shadow that lengthens and vanishes with the sun. Someday, all nations will fear the name of the Lord. Who destroyed many nations and killed mighty kings? Unless the Lord guards our cities, the watchmen keep awake in vain.

O praise the Lord, all you nations! Praise Him, all you people! For His loving kindness prevails over us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord! Psalm 117


Roy L. Nave
August, 2020
Words of King David
May the pen never restrain the truth